Everyone is Welcome
By Rachel Tulloch
My kids’ favourite song that we sing here at Sanctuary is “This is the Lord’s House. Everybody is welcome!” They love the bouncy tune more than they understand the lyrics. However, I’m not sure many adults really understand this on a deep level either. Many houses have doormats that read ‘Welcome’ on them. Many churches have signs that read ‘All are welcome.’ In practice, these ‘welcomes’ are usually quite narrow and apply to people who present well and know how to abide by unspoken social rules.
Radical welcome is rare in our society. My friend who arrived as a refugee early this year learned this after spending Winter nights in the airport and bus stations. Many others who experience poverty or lack of housing have always known this since not having anywhere to go and being pushed out of the places they manage to find for themselves is a daily reality.
Shelter is rare, let alone true welcome – somewhere where all of you is welcomed – your story, your gifts, your struggles, your pain.
At Sanctuary, welcome is one of our core values. We have defined ourselves over the long haul as a community gathered around Jesus that seeks to welcome, to be accessible to, to value the gifts of, and to join the struggle with people who are normally cast aside or treated unjustly in our society. We become such a community by joining our lives together and learning new ways of being by giving to and receiving from each other. Our community is a quirky mix of all different kinds of people trying to figure out what it means to welcome each other and create a sense of belonging together. While it is far from perfect and can be quite messy – both literally and figuratively! – we have learned that welcoming everybody means welcoming all of who we are, including the parts we would rather hide. In practice, this is a source of both pain and deeply beautiful moments of laughter, connection, and celebration.
The call to welcoming is central in the Bible (eg. Leviticus 19:34, Matthew 25:35, Hebrews 13:2) and in Jesus’ example. And it is one of the more radical and counter-cultural ways of being to which God calls us. While our society often celebrates tolerance, diversity, or inclusivity, welcoming is something more. I can tolerate or include someone I do not love or value. But to truly welcome, I have to open my very self. This is always risky, as opening ourselves to others means that we will be hurt, we will be challenged, we will be changed.
But taking these risks in our relationships, in our communities, and in our neighbourhoods is the only way we will see our world changed. And it is the only way to experience the beauty and grace of being touched by each others’ stories, gifts, struggles, and pain.
If we take the time to notice, those who have been the most unwelcomed in our society have a lot to teach all of us about what welcome really means. Many in our community who have lived the reality of having nowhere to go cannot help but welcome their friends inside when they finally have a place to live, even at the cost of losing their place. Many in our community who have known deep pain are especially adept at noticing and caring for the pain of others. Many who do not have the privilege of privacy or the emotional resources to sequester their hurt and struggles display vulnerability and open-heartedness in a way that is instructive to all of us who are used to wearing the mask of social respectability.
I know that I have been deeply changed by the welcome I have received in this community and I believe that if our society began to create more spaces of radical welcome, we would all be changed.
